The Bootblack Stand
Plunkitt, George Washington
polemics of the attack on Rickover and further supported by the author's failure to explain the political pressures which subtend and advance each position. Thus comes the unappealing idea...
...I am heartsick and can no longer hold down my sunflower seeds...
...It is a grim little reminder of the dull, sedulous, and stultifying grip of bureaucracy...
...As to your recourse, I suggest you all hand The Nation over to its creditors and become a band of urban guerrillas...
...He throws darting glances, verbal abuse, and physical objects at inept or disagreeing underlings...
...He overlooks the question of its palpable success...
...Tell me, do you think there is any possibility that we may get into another war again soon...
...In issue after issue The Nation has attempted to warn our government of Friedman's "advisory" trips to Chile...
...Urgently, Dan Berrigan, S.J...
...Zumwalt sniffs at this maneuver for its "laughably academic" approach to a military situation...
...La lotta continua, t Sic semper tyrannus...
...The government is always sending out phony leaks like this...
...Berrigan: If the war has ended it is news to me...
...Moreover, Zumwalt is inconsistent with his previous attention to the larger questions of foreign policy by ignoring the injustice of treating a close ally so badly...
...He can charm...
...Thus comes the unappealing idea that the utmost questions of American military strategy are inordinately governed by the narrowest issues--those least attentive to the necessity for naval excellence...
...He also charges Kissinger with having delayed the vital airlift of weapons to Israel in 1973 in order to "create a new reality...
...Following a long recollection of his "Z-grams' '--his celebrated memos aimed at changing what he called the Navy's "Miekey Mouse" regulations as well as its discrimination against Negroes--Zumwalt examines Secretary of State Kissinger, the wounds of the failing Nixon administration, and the military actions which the Navy took part in from 1970 to 1974...
...On Watch also manages to place Zumwalt at a fitting remove from the Nixon administration-something well advised for an aspiring Democrat who once served it-and by its preoccupation with Mr...
...Kissinger, increases the anticipation with which we regard the publication of his memoirs...
...I read Garry Wills faithfully and he has given no indication the emergency is over...
...Dear Dr...
...If so, I would appreciate specifics...
...Last is a description of the already famous palace intrigues which heralded the twilight of the Nixon administration and coincided with the end of Zumwalt's term as CNO...
...Plunkitt: The report that Milton Friedman has been awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize for economics is the worst news since the death of Joseph Stalin--a death that has always struck me as curious, coming as it did during the height of the McCarthyite horror...
...To me the most nettling matter in the Nobel Prize committee's award is the obvious fact that the prize has become political...
...George Washington Plunk#t, our prize-winning political analyst, has accepted a staff position with the House Ethics committee, but he has graciously consented to continue advising American statesmen in these times of troubles...
...The government of course claims that the war has been over since the spring of 1973, but official Washington is of course not to be trusted and my contacts with Hanoi are not as good as they once were...
...Do not flag or fail...
...The hour grows near...
...GWP Dear Dr...
...Rickover, the Secretary of State is highly successful at bureaucratic infighting...
...Why the State Department and the CIA have yet to step in defies decency...
...Address all correspondence to The Bootblack Stand, c/o The Alternative...
...Remember Sacco and Vanzetti, Blair Clark Editor, The Nation Dear Mr...
...What he finds will not surprise...
...At any rate this news explains why the turnout at our Christian peace rallies has been so low, and why my letters have not been published in the New York Times...
...Garry Wills' syndicated columns must continue to convey the sense of moral urgency that is essential to sustain the feeling of contained neurosis so necessary for a properly humane critique of our ghastly system of macho-capitalisto-militarism...
...Hijack a subway and order it to Cuba...
...Dear Fr...
...The only explanation for the Nobel Prize Committee's abominable choice is that it has finally capitulated to the United States Chamber of Commerce, or is it possible that Chile's CIA (the nefarious DINA) has reached even into Stockholm...
...THE BOOTBLACK STAND Dr...
...GWP 32 The Alternative: An American Spectator December 1976...
...According to an unusually reliable anti-war activist the Vietnam war is over...
...Those who have no familiarity with the military will find this book helpful...
...Clark: Oh woe, the DREADFUL FIFTIES are with us again (these things are cyclical...
...Like Adm...
...Plunkitt: Last week Garry Wills and I went to what was supposed to be the largest anti-war rally to be held on the East Coast this year, and we heard some surprising news...
...How long it has been over is unclear...
...What can The Nation do now...
...Frankly I think it is best you continue your demonstrations at least for a year or so just to be sure...
...Unwilling to discuss the intricacies of SALT in detail, Zumwalt settles for an outline of the accusation that Kissinger exchanged strategic superiority for the political capital of an agreement...
...It has controlled Capitol Hill for months...
...Think of it, the Nobel Prize awarded to a man who publicly consorts with the vilest totalitarian threat of this century, the Chilean iunta...
Vol. 10 • December 1976 • No. 3
